The Best of Both Phone, and Tablet
December 4, 2006 4:00 AM PST
The mating dance of the 'technosexual'
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Yet that kind of exposure drove hundreds of new members to the site, according to Michael Carter, the founder of the Passions Network, based in New York. Given the more technical nature of its membership, Trekpassionistas have started to blog from the site and often categorize themselves into affinity genres like "Star Wars," "Star Trek, or "Battlestar Galatica."
"In the last year, it's started getting its legs," he said.
Still, others are dubious. Nicholas Baker, a San Francisco executive, musician and gadget hound, said his gadget love can be marriage-damaging. "Every man-geek with a phone on their belts like a male Batman--they all dream of meeting a hot babe who's totally like them, but women are much more practical," said Baker.
Yet gadgets don't have to get in the way of love. Marcus Colombano, a managing partner at a San Francisco tech consulting firm, is also a self-described gadget hound. He's set up his home media center so he can control his music streaming with a Palm TX. On a recent trip to Napa Valley, he watched the Italy-U.S. soccer game on his Treo 700w by streaming the video from a Slingbox at home--which streams media to any number of devices via the Internet. (For the record, he was in the passenger seat.)
Thankfully, his wife shares some of his passion, but she's more of a practical user of technology, he said. They each have a blog, and share a blog of their 2-year-old son, with almost 1,600 photos. They also constantly send music files to each other's iPods over AOL Instant Messenger or via AIM mobile, through a music server installed in the basement. When his wife, Kristin, recently traveled to Asia, they stayed in touch via videoconferencing from a video camera connected to the Apple Powerbook.
"She's a technoimplementer. I'm one who finds technology, finds ways to use it, and then rolls it out into the family like a (chief technology officer)," he said.
Nonetheless, Kristin still occasionally threatens to throw away his gadgets sometimes "because I spend more time with them than her."
Yet the dream is out there.
Annalee Newitz, a San Francisco writer, is particularly attracted to geeky men. She met the man she is now dating at a robot show, where he was wearing a T-shirt with the name OpenBSD (an open-source computer operating system) on it. The two struck up a conversation, and he was attracted to Newitz because she knew about the operating system. It was kismet.
"If they don't run away screaming when you start talking about Dr. Who," that's a good sign, she said.
Newitz, 37, used to weed out her dating prospects with a bit of tattoo gate-keeping. She has a tattoo on her arm of a transistor schematic, and years ago, she would date only guys who understood what it was. "That became very limiting so I stopped," Newitz said, laughing.
Newitz believes technosexual relationships are based on ideas and intellect more than others. "I personally don't know if I'm attracted to someone until I've talked to them," she said.
Or it could just be a subconscious thing. Tarik Ono, a computer engineer at Sun Microsystems, said that although she doesn't have a "requirement" to date techies, those are just the types she's dated. For example, she's dated a mechanical engineer and an airplane engineer, and she's now married to a computer engineer.
"Disturbing, now that I think about it! It's not like I want to have someone I can talk 'geeky' stuff with," Ono said. "Maybe I just have a good understanding of geeks, since I am surrounded by them all the time."
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20 comments
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"Techno-Sexuals Unite!"
This is not an issue of finding a woman who's into tech, it's an issue of trying to find somebody who will take a back seat to your other intrests.
Get a clue guys, it doesn't work that way.
I bit your hook and of all the ---27--- members you've got there, not ONE is from the US. Good lunk in your project.
I bit your hook and of all the ---27--- members you've got there, not ONE is from the US. Good luck in your project.
One of the biggest attractions of my last wife was her technophilia.
Emo is where it's at because their girlfriends can borrow their makeup.
People keep trying to call it something else, but from where I sit the dating scene is still mostly just a meat market.
Most women have already made up their mind about you long before you get a chance to brag.
The reverse is true as well. Just like most decent women don't give guys under 5'10" a second look even if they drive a Ferrari, I won't give a fat chick a second look even if shes got a private jet.
It is a cruel fact of life.
knew her from High School. Language classes: Lots of nice
people but nobody from the demographic that I'm interested in
(female, single, 30-35). Online dating sites: lots of good dates, a
few bad ones, mostly sincere people. Sure, there's the people
who do themselves the disservice of posting photos that are 10
years out of date, but for the most part, I've had good
experiences from online dating.
Sites like verbdate.com provide the ability to use Skype Video to
chat with people long before you meet face to face.
knew her from High School. Language classes: Lots of nice
people but nobody from the demographic that I'm interested in
(female, single, 30-35). Online dating sites: lots of good dates, a
few bad ones, mostly sincere people. Sure, there's the people
who do themselves the disservice of posting photos that are 10
years out of date, but for the most part, I've had good
experiences from online dating.
Sites like verbdate.com provide the ability to use Skype Video to
chat with people long before you meet face to face.
Hey Jen - give me a Yahoo sometime... :) "rvrnet1"
angry at their ex's or unable to commit, or looking for an upgrade,
and made it clear they would do it again.
I decided to do what I enjoy and figure I'd meet someone doing the
same, and guess what?
Yeah, online dating is not the way to go.
Also, even in totally honest profiles, a lot of important terms are totally subjective---what I believe is "playful" may be "stupid", "insane" or "boring" to another person.
As if that weren't enough, people unconsciously setup expectations of the person they're going to meet---and 99% of the time, those expectations are very inaccurate (even with honest profiles) because they're based on that person's wants, fears and past experiences.
Esentially, I feel online dating is a great starting point, but it's good to reach a point where you talk on the phone or meet in real life at a neutral location.